The dating website Plenty of Fish was hacked by Chris Russo a hacker from Argentina. In his blog, CEO Markus Frind recounts the bizarre episode, blow by blow, which ended with with Frind contacting the hacker's mother by email.

Listen up porn stars: 60 to 70% of all tonsil cancers in the United States are now HPV-related, according to William Lydiatt, professor and chief of head and neck surgical oncology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. HPV – genital warts in street talk – can set off those cancers, researchers say.

From Wired.com: "Photographer Taryn Simon has spent the better part of the past decade crisscrossing the US in search of rarely documented, illicit, and sometimes brutal subjects. Her straightforward images capture everything from wrongly imprisoned men exonerated by DNA evidence to confiscated counterfeit watches to a mentally retarded tiger kept illegally in Arkansas."

Sunday, January 30, 2011

From Found Footage Festival: "This is a trailer we cut for a forgotten '80s sex comedy found on VHS. Featuring poorly-dubbed dialogue, a naive understanding of how computers work and music by heavy metal band Panther. "

Get them while they last: Obama and his lightsaber. If only he would use it for the force of fiscal good and cut some costs! Available on Amazon.

I have never been a big fan of reality TV, but the E! network takes the genre to a new low with its series Bridalplasty, where 12 engaged women compete for their dream wedding and various plastic surgery procedures. The husband does not get to see his bride until she has completed the surgeries and is probably left wondering who the hell this woman is. It looks like a true race for the bottom.

I have always been amazed by the amount of people who believe a high tax regime is a good one. To me the equation is ultimately simple: higher taxes = higher civil service payroll. When has the government ever been an effective mechanism for wealth distribution? The Soviet Union made a very good go of it and we have seen the results. If the government controlled the grocery industry does anyone believe we would have cheaper, more plentiful groceries? Yet I digress. The purpose of this post is to give those of you the would like to pay higher taxes the good news: The government will take your money! There is no limit on the amount of taxes the government will accept, they only regulate the minimum you are required to pay.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

We are doomed –– religion is taking over the world!From www.physorg.com:Robert Rowthorn, emeritus professor of economics at Cambridge University has developed a model that shows that the genetic components that predispose a person toward religion are currently “hitchhiking” on the back of the religious cultural practice of high fertility rates. Even if some of the people who are born to religious parents defect from religion and become secular, the religious genes they carry (which encompass other personality traits, such as obedience and conservatism) will still spread throughout society, according to the model’s numerical simulations.

Taco Bell is facing a class-action lawsuit which claims it's meat is only 36% beef – the rest being extenders and other bits of whatever. Well, Taco Bell is striking back with this new ad, countering the claim with the headline "Thank-you for suing us."

From perezhilton.com: "A newly formed Thai airline carrier, PC Air, announced that they have hired their first round of stewardesses - or as they're calling them, "Ladyboys."

Yes, in an effort to showcase their commitment to equal employment opportunities, three transexuals, or peoples of the "third sex" as they say in Thailand, were the first to be hired as air hostesses. Peter Chan, the CEO of the new airline, enthusiastically shared the news with sources and reveals his company is open to hiring even more transsexuals in the future. He explains:

"I think these people can have many careers – not just in the entertainment business – and many of them have a dream to be an air hostess. I just made their dream come true. Our society has changed. It's evolution. I'm a pioneer and I'm sure there will be other organizations following my idea.""

Who knew desert countries experienced such severe floods? Well at least the people know their king will look after them when he isn't busy suppressing them or lending moral support to the Egyptian president.

From CBC reports: Iran has executed a Dutch-Iranian woman who was detained for participating in protest against the disputed election in 2009 according to Iranian state television. Zahram Bahrami was actually hanged for possessing and selling drugs. The report doesn't explain what happened to the original charges. I guess this is just one hell of a coincidence.

Bandits smashed through a mall in New Jersey in an a robbery ploy reminicent of the famous mall scene in the movie "Blues Brothers". All that was missing was the mission from God.

From CNN: Saudi King Abdullah Ibn Abdulaziz Al Saud called Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and "was reassured" about the situation in Egypt, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported.

"During the call, the king said, 'Egypt is a country of Arabism and Islam. No Arab and Muslim human being can bear that some infiltrators, in the name of freedom of expression, have infiltrated into the brotherly people of Egypt, to destabilize its security and stability and they have been exploited to spew out their hatred in destruction, intimidation, burning, looting and inciting a malicious sedition,'" the news agency reported.

Friday, January 28, 2011

WTF - Hey, why didn't I think of doing this! Valerie Joyce Wilson Turks is suing at Diddy for a trillion bucks, claiming he "knocked down the World Trade Center," sexually abused her and her children and stole a casino chip worth "over 100 zillions of dollars." Turks is also claiming that Diddy fathered her child, Cornelius Wilson, 23 years ago. Diddy, his ex-girlfriend Kim Porter and, for some reason, LAPD assault victim Rodney King are named in the suit. She is seeking $900 billion in child support and $100 billion for "loss of income."

CBS has posted a new app to the Apple App Store that turns your iPhone into a Star Trek communicator. You can flip the communicator open by flipping the phone and it includes all sorts of cool sound effects. And hey, you can even use it to make phone calls!

In a move that has been anticipated by many, Egypt has literlally pulled the plug on the internet. All ISPs have been ordered to shut down there services, as the government tries to quell protests across the nation. Today, large protests are planned and as demonstated in Tunisia recently, social networking has helped protesters avoid arrest and danger as well as broadcast the events to the world. It's watch and wait for the moment.

From the Renesys blog:

"At 22:34 UTC (00:34am local time), Renesys observed the virtually simultaneous withdrawal of all routes to Egyptian networks in the Internet's global routing table. Approximately 3,500 individual BGP routes were withdrawn, leaving no valid paths by which the rest of the world could continue to exchange Internet traffic with Egypt's service providers. Virtually all of Egypt's Internet addresses are now unreachable, worldwide."

From The Telegraph – Russian authorities believe a would-be suicide bomber had her bomb triggered by a text spam:

"The unnamed woman, who is thought to be part of the same group that struck Moscow's Domodedovo airport on Monday, intended to detonate a suicide belt on a busy square near Red Square on New Year's Eve in an attack that could have killed hundreds.
Security sources believe a spam message from her mobile phone operator wishing her a happy new year received just hours before the planned attack triggered her suicide belt, killing her but nobody else."

In a recent settlement with the NYCLU, authorities in the U.S are now allowing photojournalists to take photos of public buildings. Wow. This is truly democracy at work. From the information bulletin that was issued by Homeland Security:

"Officers should not seize the camera or its contents, and must be cautious not to give such ‘orders’ to a photographer to erase the contents of a camera, as this constitutes a seizure or detention."

Hard to believe that this was an issue in the first place, but after 9/11 photographers have been harassed for photographing in public places in the U.S. and strange concept for a democratic nation.

From Wired.com: " In a bizarre example of a symbiotic relationship, tiny bats in Borneo have been found using a carnivorous plant as a toilet, feeding the pitcher plant with their droppings, while they safely roost in the plant’s traps"

Everyone has there fans, and Rochus Misch, who used to sign copies of wartime photos of himself in an SS uniform for fans has his following. Misch served as Hitler's bodyguard, telephone operator and courier. Now, at 93, he says he is too old to respond to the fan mail he receives from around the world. His memoirs, "The Last Witness", were published in 2008 in Germany and a feature film is in the works. Oye Vey!

According to Science.com, male wolf spiders are the true pick-up artists. Scientists have discovered that male wolf spiders employ a number of techniques, including vibrations and visual clues, to make sure they attract a female who will mate with them, rather than eat them.

From the New York Post:
"A Long Island woman allegedly mowed down her cousin twice with a minivan after a Facebook-fueled catfight over a man -- leaving the victim helpless in the middle of a busy road on a freezing night, sources said."